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Byford sang and played bass with a band called Coast from around 1973 to 1976 along with drummer Al Dodd and future Saxon guitarist Paul Quinn,[2] when he formed Saxon with guitarists Graham Oliver and Paul Quinn, bassist Steve Dawson and drummer Pete Gill. The band was originally called Son of a Bitch, but changed to Saxon in 1978. They released their self-titled debut album in 1979, and became part of what was known as the new wave of British heavy metal, which also included bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. The band had commercial success as well, charting eight UK Top 40 albums and five Top 40 singles between 1980 and 1986.

At the end of the 1980s, the band declined in popularity, and Oliver and Dawson formed a new band with the same name,[3] though they were later forced to change it to Oliver/Dawson Saxon. (Byford's) Saxon maintained a recording and touring career centred on Germany for much of the 1990s, before coming back into broader attention with 2007's The Inner Sanctum.[4]

In April 2007, Byford released his autobiography, entitled Never Surrender after the Saxon song of the same name. Gigwise.com reported on 18 January 2010[5] that Byford was launching a campaign to have Britons declare heavy metal as their religion in the United Kingdom Census 2011, inspired by the Jedi census phenomenon (where 2001 Census results suggested that Jediism was the UK's fourth most popular religion).